Government concedes fiscal supervision will continue post-bailout

Tuesday, January 02, 2018

After weeks of speaking of a “clean exit” from Greece’s third and last bailout programme, the government now admits that fiscal supervision of Greece will continue after the end of the current adjustment programme.

Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos told ERT state television that the government plans to complete the third programme and negotiate measures to restructure the national debt as well as the parameters of post-bailout supervision.

The government’s objective is for Greece to be able to refinance its debt without the participation of the official sector. “We do not want a new loan contract, as this has been ruled out by all political and technocratic players in the Greek programme,” Tzanakopoulos said.

“We are moving toward a self-sufficient return of Greece to the markets in September, 2018,” he underlined.

That means the current supervision regime, based on reforms in exchange for loan tranches issued by the official sector to pay off the debt, will no longer be in operation, according to the government spokesman.

“As long as we are capable to go self-sufficiently to the markets, this entire supervision mechanism has no reason to exist,” Tzanakopoulos said.

“That does not mean that there will be no fiscal oversight, but the entire logic that has been imposed on the country since 2010 is changing, and therefore September, 2018, is a political milestone.”

No snap elections

Tzanakopoulos ruled out the much-discussed prospect of early elections, citing the need for economic stability, and suggested that the government will go to the polls at the end of its term, in September, 2019, when it will have acquired the necessary political momentum.

The second reason the government’s term of office must be completed is the need for political stability over the entire four years in office, he said.